Regenerative Grazing 101: Everything You Need to Know

A revolution is spreading across several states, where farmers and ranchers are adopting regenerative grazing methods that utilize the power of livestock to revitalize, restore and transform where they graze into thriving ecosystems.

Regenerative grazing (also called rotational, managed, mob and prescribed grazing) is a holistic livestock management method that involves the practice of containing and moving animals through pasture to improve soil, plant and animal health. 

It can be used in lieu of continuous grazing, where livestock graze a pasture for an extended period of time without allowing rest for plants, which can be detrimental to soil structure and harmful to our waterways.

Quick Key Facts

• Regenerative grazing methods allow plants to regrow between grazings and establish deeper roots which, in turn, improves soil health, nutrients, soil structure and fertility. 
• It creates stronger resistance to drought by reducing soil erosion from overgrazing, leaving enough cover that slows water movement and increases absorption during heavy rains.
• It improves water quality. Regenerative grazed land doesn’t require as much nutrient inputs, and deeper roots can absorb more nutrients in the soil which decreases contaminants in groundwater. 
• It mitigates greenhouse gas emissions, both by increasing soil health, which increases ability to sequester carbon, and by more evenly spreading manure and increasing forage quality, which respectively helps mitigate methane emissions stemming from more concentrated areas, and the digestion process.  
• It significantly lowers expenses for farmers. Feed is provided through forage, the healthy soil and cover crops help the soil replenish itself which reduces the need for fertilizer and pesticides. 

History of Grazing in the U.S.

Grazing has existed for centuries, particularly the practice and benefits of regenerative grazing.  The roaming bison, which is deeply sacred to a lot of Indigenous culture, served not only Indigenous communities’ livelihoods, but shaped the ecology of the land. Foraging on dominant grasses, these traveling mammals allowed grasses to recover, while increasing biodiversity and creating habitat for other animals through their grazing. 

Several Indigenous tribes, like the Navajo, would multi-species graze over 80-mile spans in a balance that involved conservation and preservation.  

During this time there were also range wars over the control of open ranges by settlers, as well as the Civil War, during which the cattle industry grew exponentially.

Following the war, many settlers were incentivized to populate the west with homesteads. The development of railroads linking the west to eastern markets in the late 1800s led to a huge cattle boom with cows reliant on public lands to forage. This resulted in massive overgrazing. 

After droughts and harsh winters that eventually led to the deaths of millions of cattle, large swaths of land with eroded soils were left in its wake, which partly contributed to the Dust Bowl in the 1930s that  killed livestock and around 7000 people, and left many homeless.  

To avoid this happening again, in 1935 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt took executive action to create the first grazing district. The Taylor Grazing Act would later be signed into law which ended open grazing on public rangelands and established the Division of Grazing in the Department of the Interior, which was organized into 59 grazing districts and oversaw around 170 million acres of federal land and 100 million acres of private and state land.

Around the same time Indigenous Tribes, such as the Navajo, got singled out by the government for overgrazing. In the late 1800s, after the forced displacement, assimilation and genocide of many Indigenous peoples and government-ordered slaughter of bison to upend their livelihoods and culture occurred, reservation systems were put in place, and their rangelands were cut down to only a couple of miles.

Instead of dealing with the issue of land reduction causing issues of overgrazing, the Bureau of Indian Affairs decided to reduce their livestock — most of which was owned by Diné women — through the Livestock Reduction Act. 

The government eventually forced the Navajo to give up 148,000 goats and 50,000 sheep, most of which were priced below market value or killed when they couldn’t be delivered to trailheads. This caused formidable economic and nutritional damage to tribes, alongside emotional trauma due to the sacred connection to the animals. 

The Taylor Grazing Act was amended in the late 1930s and established grazing advisory boards that allocated permits and determined usage. Federal Range code also emerged from this time, as well as the Grazing Service, which was a name change from the Division of Grazing. After inadequate funding prevented observation and evaluation, the Grazing Service consolidated with the General Land Office to form the Bureau of Land Management in 1946, which still oversees grazing lands.

Regenerative Grazing and the Environment   

The first person who was credited to promote regenerative grazing practices was Arthur Sampson, a plant ecologist for the Forest Service in the 1900s. Sampson’s extensive research led to several books and what the USDA claims is referred to today as rangeland management and restoration ecology.  

While it is also known today that these practices existed for centuries prior to colonization, and are currently undergoing restoration culturally, the benefits of regenerative grazing practices are numerous, particularly for the environment. 

Regenerative grazing helps maintain a level of groundcover by moving livestock from paddock to paddock, which in turn protects the soil from erosion and runoff from rains, which allows the soil to maintain necessary nutrients. 

Soil compaction, which reduces soil’s ability to maintain moisture and air movement is avoided by preventing the same areas from constantly being trampled by livestock. There is also a better distribution of manure, which serves as a natural fertilizer for the soil. 

A combination of these makes pastures more resilient to droughts, and also is known to sequester carbon by keeping it in the ground. A 2017 study in the Amazon found that farms participating in these practices had 35% fewer emissions than non-participating farms. 

As an indirect benefit for the environment, regenerative grazing practices also limits the need to purchase feed due to foraging resources. 

In the U.S., feed crops take up a whopping 75% of cropland and when fed to livestock, provide an inefficient resource of calories. Farming for growing this feed also largely utilizes monocropping systems, which uses lots of water, fertilizer and pesticides, causes soil degradation, as well as contributes to the loss of biodiversity and increases greenhouse gas emissions.

Regenerative Grazing and the Food Industry

Currently, 90% of the United States’ meat and eggs comes from large concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). A CAFO is an industrial factory farm that keeps a large number of animals confined to a small, densely packed space. 

21,000 CAFOs exist nationwide and generate hefty amounts of fecal waste that has been known to pollute waterways, and emit over 160 gases including large amounts of greenhouse gases that affect the atmosphere, and cause ill health effects in communities nearby who are typically low-income communities of color. 

Over the last few years, reports and surveys have shown that there is a rising interest amongst consumers to buy climate-friendly food. In 2022, USDA awarded over $4.7 million towards climate-smart food production. 

Most recently, a study from a researcher from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health gave participants a menu of food with labels of high climate impact and low climate impact labeling, with an increased preference towards the latter.

Another study done by the International Food Information Council (IFIC) has shown that 70% of consumers were concerned about climate change with 52% claiming that their concern impacts their food and beverage purchases.  

In 2022, reports showed that there was a surge in interest in grass-fed beef. Due to its high quality foraging, grass-fed beef is leaner, and higher in key nutrients. 

Currently, grass-fed beef comprises only 4-5% of sales in the U.S., and a lot of that meat is not raised and processed in the U.S., despite labeling. However, according to the USDA, more than 40% of cow-calf operations use regenerative grazing methods.

Policy and Federal Programs

The upfront costs of transitioning or establishing regenerative grazing and other regenerative agriculture methods can be pretty high, and many are calling for better policy to provide financial support to make it more economically feasible for existing and beginning farmers.

In 2019’s Green New Deal proposal, legislators were called to a policy overhaul to meet the challenges of climate change while furthering environmental and social justice. U.S. agriculture land was cited by think-tank Data for Progress as being one of the greatest sources for environmental change. 

Data for Progress created a Green New Deal Policy series which included a political agenda for regenerative farming and the Green New Deal. It calls out policies that favor incentivizing industrial monoculture, the lack of subsidies for healthy ecological practices, and the necessity for more funding for existing programs. The solutions involve more rewards, incentives and training for those who want to utilize more regenerative methods. 

While the Green New Deal didn’t make it through the senate, in 2022 the USDA invested $1 billion in the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program to support America’s climate-smart farmers, ranchers and forest landowners, with an emphasis on small and underserved farmers.  

Other existing federal programs that include regenerative grazing methods include:

The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP)

Starting in 2008, CSP is the largest conservation program in the U.S., helping farmers and producers maintain and adopt new conservation practices through free technical assistance and financial incentives.

The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)

Since 1996, EQIP has been helping farmers and ranchers develop conservation plans while also providing financial incentives and technical assistance for projects that provide environmental benefits. 

EQIP funds, however, have been said to disproportionately favor CAFOS where funds are used to likely pay for waste lagoons, animal mortality facilities, and waste treatment facilities, which negatively impact the environment.

The Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP)

Beginning in 2014 through the 2014 Farm Bill, RCPP brings together stakeholders and state agencies to bring funding to help agriculture producers achieve conservation goals. 

The Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative (GLCI)

Starting in Montana in 1991, this initiative also provides technical assistance to expand well-managed grazing systems that practice conservation. Recently, through this program, USDA announced a $12 million investment in partnerships that expand access for livestock producers, and to increase the use of conservation practices on grazing lands. 

Organizations Supporting Regenerative Grazing

While stronger policy is still needed, several organizations across the country are already expanding models of regenerative grazing practices across several acres of land in the U.S. 

Here are some of those organizations:

7Gen Food Systems

Led by the Sicangu Community Development Corporation, the project, based on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota and home to the Sicangu Lakota Oyate, is founded in the Indigenous belief system that we are under obligation to consider Seven Generations into the future when making decisions. One of their main projects is the Wolakota Buffalo Range, which is 28,000 acres filled with over a thousand buffalo where they rotationally graze to restore soil health and native prairie grasses. According to their website, the buffalo is an animal recognized by the Sicangu Lakota as a relative, and plays a healing and restorative role in the Native cultural economy.  

Dairy Grazing Project

Part of the Pennsylvania-based nonprofit Pasa Sustainable Agriculture — whose mission is to build environmentally sound, economically viable, community-focused farms and food systems — this project serves as a supportive resource for both experienced graziers and conventional farmers who want to start grazing. The project provides mentorship programs in Pennsylvania, support on how to get USDA Certified Organic or Regenerative Organic, how to stay compliant, as well as support with technical, business and other financial services.

Mountains-to-Bay Grazing Alliance (M2B) 

The alliance brings together private and public partners to promote the implementation of rotational grazing and related conservation practices. Created through a 2015 USDA Conservation Innovation Grant that brought together state-based groups promoting rotational grazing in Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania, they are now building on and expanding the partnership to leverage and share resources and to provide assistance to producers wanting to transition to rotational grazing systems in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Rodale Institute

This nonprofit seeks to create a resilient global food system that improves human health and the environment and provides groundbreaking research and education to help enable farms and farmers to transition to regenerative organic agricultural practices.

Country Natural Beef

Based in Redmond, Oregon, Country Natural Beef is one of the largest cattle ranching cooperatives in the Western U.S. with over 100 members in 11 states, spanning over 6.5 million acres of land, and promotes their recent climate-friendly beef initiative Grazewell, which gets ranchers to test and adopt regenerative ranching methods by 2025. 

Carman Ranch Direct

Based in Wallowa, Oregon, Carman Ranch Direct imagines a food system built around nourishing soil, people and animals. It started as a century-old family ranch and grew to include other producers in the Pacific Northwest, who promote regenerative, climate-smart ranching practices and provide a year-round supply of grass-fed cattle to local consumers.

Regenerative Farmers of America 

Run by Blacksburg Virginia farmers, this organization supports farmers already practicing regenerative agriculture and provides resources to those who want to try, as well as to nonfarmers who want to learn more. 

DX Beef

Located on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, DX Beef is an Indigenous-led community-focused regenerative agriculture operation that sells direct-to-consumer grass-fed beef, hoping to connect consumers to the landscape the Lakota stewarded for millenia.

Sustainable Northwest

This Portland-based conservation nonprofit works at the intersection of economy, environment and communities. They recognize and financially reward ranchers for adopting regenerative practices on public and private lands.